I've Always Loved The Sky
by rocketraccoon18
Summary: After Rocket escaped from Halfworld, he crashed on a planet. Seriously wounded, he crawled from the wreckage of the ship and stared up at the sky and the world around him.. The Sky was so blue!.. The grass smelled so good! It was so much better than the impressions left on him by the forced Neural-Sim sessions.. It was a pity he would die before enjoying it.


**Authors Note:  
Hi, I haven't posted anything here in quite a long time. I hope you enjoy this.. It's a bit rushed but, I think it's okay.  
Enjoy  
~RocketRaccoon18  
**

 ****

 **I've Always Loved The Sky  
**

The ship flew through the black void of space, weaving left and right, up and down. Narrowly dodging the laser fire from the AI drones behind it. The ship shook violently as one of the AI drones managed to hit the starboard wing. The pilot was thrown from his seat, he growled and scrambled back into the chair. The Comm unit rang out, a high pitched tone that hurt the pilot's ears. With another growl and harsh short bark the pilot pressed the blinking button.  
"Subject 89P13, Surrender your craft and you will not be harmed."  
Subject 89P13 laughed roughly and grabbed the Comm unit, "J1, that you?" The pilot's voice was rough and scratchy there was a faint animalistic twittering growl that seemed to be just below the surface of the animal's speech. The mechanical voice returned,  
"Subject 89P13, Scanners indicate that your starboard side oxygen tank has been cracked. At the current rate of loss, oxygen levels will drop below acceptable range in 30 minutes, however in 10 minutes you will be unconscious. Either shut down your engines and allow us to take you back the planet or you can flee and we will follow until you suffocate."  
The animal growled and jabbed a claw at the power button for the Comm system. The ship was a simple, short range cargo transport vessel. It wasn't made for exploration and he was losing oxygen, it was a slow leak. But 89P13 knew that J1 and the others were right, they would let him die.. Then revive him. He knew they could do it, he had 'died' at least once a week since the metal had been put into his body and that was over a month ago.  
He sighed and flipped the emergency shut off switch for the engines. The Comm beeped again. With a faint sigh of defeat the raccoon pressed the glowing button on the Comm system,  
"Thank you for complying Subject 89P13..", the emotionless voice intoned, "This instance has been noted in the logs and disciplinary actions will be taken."  
The small animal shuddered at the memory of the usual 'disciplinary' actions. He wanted to cry and plead, to somehow spare himself from what he knew now awaited him back on-world. But, he had learned long ago that there was no way to change the Machine's minds. He slumped in the seat and waited..

The ship shuddered lightly, as the tractor beams from the drones locked onto his ship. He felt the ship move.. It was a strange feeling not being in control of a moving vehicle. He watched as the full gray of the metal artificial planet moved into view, stamped into the side were the words: Halfworld. The raccoon in the seat felt a wave of emotions rush over him.. Anger, Hatred, Fear, Anxiety, and Despair. His mind analyzed each feeling, the neural data implant connected by the ports on his back recording every thought every process.  
He quickly buried these emotions, they were weakness... He wasn't supposed to feel anything, he was supposed to have been programmed, to let these feelings pass. They were a byproduct of his 'animal' nature, he had been told that normal beings didn't feel these things. He sighed and dropped to the ground. He walked to the back of the ship near the cargo bay and knelt down on the floor raising his arms and placing his paws, hands? He didn't know, on the back of his head. He waited as the ship docked with the cargo bay and the airlock opened, the ramp lowering down. A tall Machine that ducked to enter the ship walked in, the machine had two legs and large clawed feet. The body of the Machine was rectangular but almost graceful in its construction. The Machine extended an arm out of its 'hips' on the end of the arm was a stun prod, the tip of the prod glowed with a light blue shimmering light. The raccoon stared at the Machine a faint involuntary whimper escaped out into the quiet cramped room.  
With a speed that was almost unable to be seen. The Machine lunged forward, the stun prod stabbing gently into the animal's neck. 89P13 gave a choked cry, arcs of energy clearly visible as they traced over and through his convulsing body, his eyes rolling back, whites clearly visible for a brief instance before the animal dropped to the ground. The Machine ran a bio-scan and confirmed that the Subject was still alive. The Machine scooped up the limp form of the unconscious raccoon, as gently as one would handle a baby, and walked out of the ship.

The raccoon woke up, he looked around at the dull gray metallic walls squinting in the bright, white lights that seemed to come from every direction. He knew where he was as this has become almost ritualistic in his dealings with the Machines. He counted the seconds ticking off each one carefully.  
5.  
It was always the same, he heard the dull mechanic whine of the EMP charging.  
4.  
He heard the servos in the arm moving the emitter,  
3.  
He felt the slight change in the air as the emitter was positioned at the base of his skull.  
2.  
He felt the cold barrel of the EMP Emitter pressing against the base of his skull.  
1.  
The high pitched whine grew to a piercing volume.  
0.  
He felt the slight static pinching in his skull as his mind was blasted into deactivation.

The raccoon's eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped to the floor. The door to the room opened and one of the Machines entered. It was carrying a small collar in its hand. The animal let out a soft sound that could have been a groan as it sat up. It watched, nose twitching slightly as it tried to pick up the Machine's scent. It moved slowly, as if confused, the animal looked around the room. His breathing became frantic as if it knew something was wrong with the room that it was in. The Machine moved forward and swiftly grabbed the animal by the scruff of its neck. The raccoon let out a yelp and moved to slash at the machine with its claws, It fell limp and curled in on itself involuntarily as the Machine lifted the animal off the ground, the Machine was able to pick up the animal's rapid fluttering heartbeat. The Machine placed the collar around the animal's neck, waiting for it to seal itself onto the raccoon's neck and activate. There was a faint thrum as the EMP field generator activated. The collar was designed to keep the animal from its higher functions as long as an operation was planned. The Machine watched as the slight glimmer of returning intelligence in the animal's eyes was blotted out by the EMP waves being directed into the animal's skull.  
The Machine carried the animal out of the room by the scruff of its neck. It held the animal out in front of itself, ignoring the quiet whimpers that came from it. The Machine, the one the raccoon had called J1 in fact, carried the animal through the hallways. It stopped and entered a room, above the door were the words, "Surgery- Implant additions." The Machine placed the raccoon down on the table and activated the barrier that kept the animal spreadeagled. Out of the ceiling there lowered another Machine, this one was different than the rest. It was a single red eye surrounded by long mechanical arms, instead of fingers this one had knives, syringes, drills, saws, and every other type of tool, both medical and others that had been modified for medical use. It sat briefly, hovering over the restrained raccoon a red beam shot out of its eye and ran down the animal. The machine dropped down its arms lowering into position. The door to the room closes and high pitched chirring shrieks of agony could be heard through the metal door.

-One Hour Later-  
The grey doors opened up and the red eyed Machine raised itself back into the ceiling. The table that the raccoon lay on was spattered with blood (messes were common with realignment) the red liquid congealing into a paste on the cool metal. The raccoon lay there, chest heaving with each breath, eyes open but, not really seeing. There were needles in the animal's arms and body, each one in a vein resupplying the raccoon with his own blood. J-1 walked out of the room and the door closed.

-One Hour Later-  
J-1 entered the room again, it turned off the energy barrier and carefully pulled the needles out of the raccoon's arms. The Machine scooped up the semi-conscious raccoon in its arms and turned carrying the animal out of the room. They walked through more hallways to a lift. Once down many levels they entered a room. It wasn't very wide but, it was long. Lining the room in seven long rows were cages. The Machine opened one of the cages, like the others, it was an old cage there was a thick layer of old stick-on labels on the top bar.  
The Machine pushed the raccoon inside, the cage was small. There was just barely enough room for the animal. The humming collar around its neck beeped and dropped to the floor of the cage. The Machine grabbed the collar and closed the cage. It walked out of the long room and the door closed behind it.  
The animal stirred sat up and shook its head clearing away the faint static that hovered on the edge of its vision. He sat up, confusion flickered on his face for a moment. Before being replaced by pain as the dampeners came offline. 89P13 curled up on the floor of its cage, a faint whimpering issued from his mouth. The whimpering grew in volume and the raccoon began crying as the pain slowly increased. The animal began a high pitched keening that echoed through the room. 89P13 curled up on the floor of his cage and lay there trembling as his agony grew. One by one the lights in the compound snapped off leaving the whimpering, crying raccoon in darkness.

The lights came back on after seven sleepless, pain filled hours, 89P13 was used to this though. It was a part of the unspoken ritual that had been developed. He would eventually succumb to his exhaustion and collapse in his cage. The door to the room opened and one of the Machines entered. It was carrying a small bowl, the raccoon knew what was in the bowl. It was the dried pellets that served as his morning food. The door was opened and the bowl was dumped into the floor of his cage. The raccoon was hungry, and he knew it was expected of him to eat. He knew what would happen if he didn't..  
After the pellets were gone, one of the Machines walked back in. It grabbed the animal holding it by the scruff of its neck. The machine turned and walked carrying the raccoon out of the room. They walked to the lift and took it up many levels to another floor. The raccoon didn't know what floor he had tried asking once and got no response. The Machine walked, the animal hung in its grasp unable to move due to the age old reaction of his brain. The one that forced him to be still, no matter how much he hated it. The machine turned and walked into another room it gently set the animal on the floor and turned walking out of the room. The metal door to the room closed and a heavy sound could be heard as the locking mechanism was activated. The raccoon turned, walking on his hind legs the way he had been realigned to. He stepped on the belt of the machine in front of him. He knew he was going to run.. Run until his legs gave out and he collapsed, dropping to the belt and being thrown off of the machine. He hated this part of his day..

The moment his paws touched the cold, roughly textured surface of the belt he felt it begin to move. As he stumbled forward to keep his balance. He heard the thrumming pop of the barriers to his sides being activated. He began.  
Jogging turned to running, and running turned to sprinting. After nearly five minutes of sprinting. His feet bumped together and he reached out to grab the bar to steady himself. There was quick hiss as cold metal slid over his wrists locking them to the bar. He frowned, Was this a new test? Or an equipment malfunction? He never could tell. He kept running despite his arms being locked to the bar. At seven minutes the raccoon's breathing was harsh and fast as he panted to keep himself cool. At twelve minutes the raccoon was stumbling, heart pounding rapidly in his chest. At eighteen minutes he began to feel a numbness creep down his arms. At twenty a faint black haze was fringing his vision. twenty-five minutes in and he felt the sharp, overwhelming bust of pain in his chest.  
The raccoon was dimly aware of the pain of his knees hitting the belt, bare feet dragging on the rough surface, the skin and fur being torn off. He heard the belt stop, its breaks activate and the burning on his knees, shins, and feet lessened. He dropped, as the metal rings on his wrists disappeared and dropped to the ground. He was aware of The Machine that stepped close stabbing into his chest, seven of its needles tipped fingers sliding into flesh, between the ribs to his damaged heart. While another few tubes shot out of the Machine's chest and burrowed into the fading raccoon's arms, thighs, neck, and spine. As his world faded into a mass of blackness and pain he was aware of a deep red liquid beginning to flow through the Machine.

-Eight Weeks Later-  
It was some time after the incident with the Belt Machine. The raccoon had bandages wrapped over his chest to hide and protect the oozing scabs. His body felt heavy, he had no idea just how much metal had been placed in him. But, at this point he was ready to assume he more metal than meat. He had no idea that a stronger heart had been implanted in him. One which wouldn't fail.. No matter how much stress they put on it.  
The raccoon was actually grateful for the injury, it meant that just for a while.. There would be no tests, no forced understanding, no running.. He could just sit there and close his eyes, bringing up the images of the sky.  
He loved the sky..  
Whenever it popped up in the Neural-Sim he felt a sense of peace float over him and, even though it was fake.. A series of calculated electrical pulses to various areas of his brain. Telling him, he was smelling the air, grass, and the trees. Feeling the grass under his feet, the wind on his face, the rough bark of a tree under his paw.  
He loved it, for some reason.. It felt like home.  
He lay there in his cage, barely feeling the pain from whatever had been done to him. He imagined the sky, so blue, the large patches of water vapor floating across the sun. He was content in his mind, alone and in a much better place than the hell that surrounded him.  
The raccoon hardly noticed the lights in the room shutting off..  
And in the darkness of that room, for the first time in.. However long he had been here. He broke the cycle.. He slept and dreamed of hills, trees, and staring at the sky for hours.

-One Year Later-  
89P13 (Or Rocket as he began calling himself since he saw one of the weapons in a Neural-Sim) was sitting in his cage. It was a slightly larger one, but, not by much. He was working on a small device, he had been planning this for months now. Scrounging up and saving whatever pieces he could get during his weapon building sessions. This was something he had designed himself. It wasn't that powerful but, he figured it would work for his purposes. He was going to rig the small explosive device to monitor his Bio-signature, it would detonate at the moment of his death. The device was powerful enough to instantly kill the raccoon and the blast would prevent them from bringing him back. He hoped he could just get out of here without having to use the device. But, he would, if it would spare him any more of this torture.  
His plan was to use the air vents in the place to get out of the cage room. He knew the station well, so he figured it would take the machines a while to find him. He just had to get to the main control room. From there he would cause a bit of mayhem, then, open the hanger doors. He would take a ship and then the raccoon would then fly as far away from the planet as possible. He finished the explosive and strapped it to his chest. The metal was a little cold at first, but the back of device warmed up. He waited for the green light to flip on and grinned slightly when it did. The device would monitor his heart rate, breathing, and body temperature. If his heart stopped the device would go off.. If his breathing cut off for over a minute it would go off. The body temperature thing was probably a little too much, but, he wanted to make sure he couldn't be brought back if they killed him.

The raccoon gnawed gently at his lip and sighed as he reached through the bars of the cage and picked the lock. He pushed the door open slowly and climbed down to the metal floor. He looked back at the door to the room, He knew he had about six minutes before one of the Machines came to grab him. He knew that it would take about ten minutes to reach the junction in the air vents that would take him to the main control deck.  
He huffed softly, rolling his shoulders as he walked over to the row of cages that were under the vent cover. He jumped up and grabbed the bars of the cage using them as hand-holds to pull himself up higher. He had climbed to the vent cover in less than a minute.  
The raccoon used the tip of his claw to remove the two screws that were holding it in place. He pulled the cover off and tossed it down to the floor. Rocket climbed into the vent, it was a bit of a tight squeeze but, he could fit. He crawled along the vent stopping every few feet to relieve the tension in his spine. He grinned very slightly when he heard the alarms going off. He crawled through the vents listening to the chaos below, He knew his way through the ventilation systems as he had the blueprints of the station branded into his mind. He reached the intersection and took a left, heading in the direction of the lift that would take him to the Generator room.  
Rocket kept moving along the ventilation shaft. He knew he was currently under the floor of level 12. He came to a small vent that was on the wall. He stopped and waited for for his breathing and heart rate to go back to normal. He opened the vent carefully and peeked out, there was movement around the corner of the room. But, it sounded like it was getting further away. The raccoon quickly scampered out of the vent and made his way through the hall..

They were made of the same gray metal as all the other rooms in the complex. The halls were strangely empty of Machines. He realized that they must be searching each floor starting with the Cage Room. He knew he had about five minutes before they figured out where he had gone and locked down the core. The raccoon stood up on his tiptoes and was barely able to press the button for the lift. The door opened with a heavy metallic clang that was followed by a loud whirring sound as the doors slip open. He checked the hall again and nodded a little, so far everything was going well. He just needed the go up three floors and create a crisis event. Then, he would be able to go up to the main computer core while most, if not all, of the Machines were dealing with the crisis.  
He pressed the button to move the lift and waited for a few seconds he could hear the Machines almost at the door at the end of the hall when the lift opened and he stepped inside. The lift moved quickly, heading up the three floors faster than he thought it would. It opened and the raccoon stepped out onto the floor.

He looked around and frowned a little as he remembered where it was that he was supposed to go. He nodded a little to himself and began walking down the hall to the generator room. The generators were the usual series of Deuterium-Tritium Fusion reactors. He quickly climbed down the stairs, and walked over to the main console. He cursed his height and growled softly as he scrambled up the side of the console. He studied it for a few seconds, with a nod. He turned up the reactor's speed and began the containment field deactivation. Red lights flared up, and for one horrible moment he thought he'd been caught.. Then: "WARNING, REACTOR CAONTAINMENT FIELD DISENGAGED. CRITICAL MELTDOWN IN T MINUS TWENTY MINUTES." He grinned, why not make the station explode? That would kill the AI and destroy this hell. He frowned a little as he hopped down off the console. "Rocket, you are going to have to make it so They cannot stop this." He had an idea.. He jogged over to the maintenance panel, he pulled it open with a sharp tug and nodded. There were four main power cables he could use.. He opened the maintenance box and took a pair of cable cutters. He pulled the local power breaker and then quickly cut the cable. He dragged it out and used the metal-putty to temporarily weld the cable to the door. He grinned and walked back over and flipped the breaker back on. There was a sharp pop and the acrid smell of burning metal as the cable really did weld to the door. He laughed softly, not only would the electricity hurt the machines, but the station's safety protocols would keep the door shut until the electrical hazard was removed from the door.. But to do that.. They needed to cut power to this section.. Which would cut off power to the doors.. It was a really crappy system, and prone to logic faults such as these..

He ran back over to the side wall and slipped into the vent after prying off the vent cover. He'd have to hurry now.. He scampered along as quick as he could through the vents banging his knees and elbows painfully as he went. The raccoon came to a junction and slid down the tilted metal, he prayed that there weren't any jagged edges or he was done for.. He came to a stop quite suddenly and smacked his head on the metal he blinked, shaking his head a little, aware that he was bleeding from a cut on his head. Rocket dizzily kept going, he didn't know how much time had passed but, by god he was gonna get the hell outta here..  
After some time, he finally made it out of the ventilation system.. He looked around and blinked, running through the schematics in his head. "Good.." He started running.. Scampering as fast as he could on all fours. He made it to the hangar, barely making it there. He heard the Machines chasing.. They must have seen him in one of the cameras. He skidded to a stop and pressed the manual override for the main hangar door. He pulled the bomb off his chest and slid it under the door.. He heard the muffled WHUMP! as it went off. There was silence on the other side of the door and he knew he probably only had- "WARNING. CRITICAL REACTOR MELTDOWN IN T MINUS TEN MINUTES." Okay, he only had ten minutes.. He quickly scanned the craft in the hanger.. While there were indeed machines built to go out into the void of space. There were ships also available in case of an evacuation.. He ran, mentally cursing his short legs, he made it to one of the ships and climbed inside.. It was a very simple ship more a shuttle than anything.. Smaller than the resource transport he had stolen a year ago. He didn't even know if the thing had life-support. But if he died out in space.. That was better to dying in here should the Machines stop the meltdown. He powered up the shuttle and used the maneuvering thrusters to fly out of the hanger.. He kept going until main propulsion was powered on then.. He gunned it.. Speeding away from the station.. Hoping to get out of the blast-zone befo-

There was a bright bloom of light that flared up, brighter than a star briefly blinding the raccoon. He was shaking as he desperately tried to activate the warp drive.. The small craft shuddered, alarms blared piercingly loud in the silent shuttle. With a whimpering yelp, he activated the warp drive right as the ship was hit on the starboard side by the wave of energy from the explosion, the shuttle jumped blindly into space, heading in a random direction.

It was about ten minutes before the raccoon realized exactly what he had done.. He laughed, a sound that was the chittering chirring of a normal raccoon, perfectly blended with the normal laugh of a humanoid. He did a little dance.. right there in the cabin of the shuttle. He walked around the shuttle and found the emergency rations he tore into the packaging and scooped out the thick nutrient paste. He finished eating.. it had no flavor at all but, it was better than the small pawful of kibble.. He sighed almost happily.. Then climbed up on the pilot's seat, curled up in it and fell asleep.  
He awoke, startled by a loud alarm that forced him out of his deep sleep. He flailed around and fell out of the chair. What was wrong? He climbed back onto the chair and stood up on it. The ship dropped out of warp lurching the raccoon forward, smacking his face on the console. He snarled a little and switched to impulse. There was a planet nearby.. If only he could land..

The smoke was blinding, thick, and oily, it stung the raccoon's eyes as he strained to open them. He coughed roughly tasting the horribly acidic flavor of burning fuel. He felt around his body trying to feel out any injuries. He pressed the release button on the side of the chair falling to the ceiling of the cockpit. He yelped loudly as he landed. His right arm shooting pain through him. He screamed and realized that his arm was probably broken now. He sat there for a moment, trying to get up the will to move. When he caught sight of one of the glowing power cores in the ship.

Small arcs of energy tingged off the surrounding metal, he gasped softly and turned moving as fast as he could. He slipped on the damp fuel covered surface of the ship's side wall and fell. He dropped to all fours began scrambling toward the emergency release exit. He stood up, grabbed the handle and pulled it watching as the side panels exploded outward making an exit for him. He jogged out the side door, ignoring the pain that shot up his arm with each step.

The raccoon began running away from the ship as it exploded behind him in a giant ball of purple-blue flames. The force was enough to knock the raccoon off his feet, he felt a sharp pain radiate from his arm and heard a wet snap. He screamed, though the sound was lost in the loud series of booms that marked all the power cells exploding one after the other. He felt something hit his right shoulder as he lay shaking on the ground. He crawled away from the wreckage of his ship, bleeding from small but deep cuts on his back and a ragged gash in his shoulder. He left smears of blood behind him as he moved to a grassy spot and rolled over onto his back.

Rocket stared at the sky, eyes wide, drinking in the vibrant blues and whites. He turned his head even though it felt like he was moving through deep water. He smelled the grass and rolled over again to gently nuzzled the ground. He heard himself purring.. A sound which he wasn't familiar with though he felt happy hearing it.  
He felt.. Far away.. Distant.. Like he was watching himself through the neural-sim. He coughed lightly and spit onto the ground, he was bleeding from his mouth.. He wasn't sure if he had busted his lip.. Or if he was bleeding internally. He was startled to find that he really didn't care..  
If he was gonna die now.. Then he wouldn't fight it anymore..  
The raccoon closed his eyes and felt himself sinking into a deep sleep.. His ears twitched a little at a faint sound coming from the nearby forest. He wanted to move, but he was so sleepy.

If the raccoon was awake, he would have heard another sound like that of a creaking tree... Out the woods walked a tall tree-man. He had seen the ship as it fell from the sky tail end burning. He was curious about the strange thing he had seen. There had been other things like it before. But, none of them were burning. He wondered if the shiny bird was okay.. He entered the clearing in the woods and found nothing but the burning shell of the ship.  
The tree-man gasped softly he made a low, sad hum and was about to turn and leave to gather stones to bury the shiny bird. As he had done with other animals in the past.  
When he heard something.. It was faint but.. It was there.. The faint, whimpering breath of an animal in pain. He turned and looked at the ground.. He saw a small trail of blood and followed it with his eyes. He gasped lightly at the sight of the battered, dirty animal. He walked over to it, moving slowly so as not to frighten the poor thing. He poked it gently with his finger and saw it stir. He frowned a little, he had never seen this type of animal before.. It was different, it looked like it could walk on its hind paws versus on all fours like all of the animals he had seen in his section of the forest.

He bent down and gently scooped the animal up in his hand. The poor thing was bleeding from quite a few cuts on its back.. Its right arm was obviously broken. The tree-man scooped the animal up, fingers curling gently around the animal holding it down. As vines extended from his fingertips and gently wrapped around the injured animal's arm. He felt the small bones shift back into place.  
The animal squirmed, making a soft barking yelp sound as the bones were properly realigned, the tree-man could sense its pain. He hummed softly and rocked the small animal in his hand, gently petting the animal's soft belly. The tree-man felt the animal's trembling body slowly still and he nodded. He hated hurting animals, but he need to do this or it would die..  
The tree-man tightened his grip on the animal's body, carefully immobilizing it and used a few soft vines to feel over the raccoon's body for any other injuries. He felt several smaller cuts that were more like scratches than anything else. Though there were a few that he would have to close.. He sighed softly, he hated doing this part.. But, he had too, he only hoped that the animal wouldn't be afraid of him afterward.

He slowly turned the animal over in his hand then held the animal down again. Strong, thin vines sprouted from his fingertips, on the ends of these were small, sharp, curved thorns. Using his other hand he took the needle and began stitching the wounds closed. The tree-man held the squirming, whimpering animal gently but made sure it wasn't going to hurt itself anymore by making him mess up on the stitching.  
The tree-man finished stitching up all the wounds, it had taken him only a few minutes. He tied off the vines, then lifted the small animal and held it against his body. He felt the smaller creature moving weakly and he began humming, a low reverberating sound. Which he knew would calm and comfort it. The tree-man smiled as he felt it relax. The animal's breathing going into the natural rhythm of sleep. He stood up from his crouch and began walking slowly, cradling the small animal to his chest.

-One Year Later-  
"Oh Shit! Groot! Grab Rocket!"  
Laser fire burned through the air around the tree-man. A few of the rounds hitting him in the chest and on the arms. The bolts stung but were otherwise useless against him. He ran across the battlefield and scooped up the prone raccoon. He cradled him to his chest. Thick vines and small branches weaving together to form a shield around the unconscious mammal's body. He turned and ran back to the Milano, ignoring the burning bolts of energy as they slammed into his back.. He would just heal from them anyway. He had to get Rocket to safety. The ship's engines roared as Gamora started the takeoff. Peter was standing on the ramp of the ship firing his twin guns at the enemies behind them. Groot could hear them and he ran faster, jumping onto the open ramp. Peter turned and yelled over his shoulder.  
"GO NOW GAMORA!"  
The ship lurched as Gamora began speeding off through the sky. Peter turned to Groot, "Is he okay? That bolt looked like it hit him.."  
Groot moved his arms and held Rocket out to Peter. Peter took him gently and looked him over, "He's fine.. The bolt just grazed his shoulder. It could have been worse." He gave the unconscious raccoon back to Groot. "You know best how handle him Groot." Peter turned and walked away, "I can't deal with him last time I tried he nearly killed me.. Now.. I'm gonna make a sandwich."  
Groot carried Rocket back into their shared room. He started softly petting the raccoon he knew, but would never tell anyone else. That Rocket liked being petted and scritched. Even though he pretended not too.  
He hummed lowly as he softly laid the raccoon in his bed knowing that when affects of the EMP wore off.. Rocket was gonna be tired, sore and very angry at Quill..  
Groot only hoped he could stop Rocket before he did anything too serious.

The End?


End file.
